The Forest Guards — a group of six children, aged 10 to 13 — know better than most the importance of forest fire prevention. In 2008, a blaze near their hometown of Meadow Vista, Calif., devoured 190 square miles and forced the to evacuate.
In response, the group developed the Forest Guard prevention system. Forest Guard uses a network of cameras with a 360-degree view, solar power, and wi-fi technology to broadcast real-time images of forests to the desktops and screensavers of computers all over the world. Ordinary citizens will be able to help with forest fire vigilance and contact professionals if they observe a fire.
The group of six students, who are homeschooled in Meadow Vista, won the top prize at the Global First LEGO League Climate Actions competition in Copenhagen, Denmark, in May 2009. European Sony executives were so taken with the idea that they offered to help the team with development of the project.
The first prototypes are being tested near the Tahoe National Forest under the leadership of Dr. Graham Kent, the director of the Nevada Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno.
‘The Forest Guards,’ a documentary directed by Steven Kijak and John Keitel about the project, will screen at the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences in Incline Village on May 4. The students and their coach Heidi Buck will attend the screening, as well as Dr. Graham Kent, the director of the University of Nevada’s Seismological Laboratory, who has led installation, testing and maintenance of the Forest Guard system in the Tahoe Basin. A donation of $5 is requested in lieu of an entry fee, and a no-host bar will be open from 5:30 to 6 p.m., followed by the screening at 6 p.m. in Assembly Rooms 139 and 141.
Info: Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences, 291 Country Club Drive, Incline Village, terc.ucdavis.edu
